MODELS and EDTconf 2026 in Málaga

Created on October 13, 2026 , last updated on October 13, 2026

2026

Bentley Oakes, Kérian Fiter, and Mikkel Schmidt Andersen at a viewpoint above the port of Málaga, with the city and the sea behind them.

I had a great week at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2026) and the co-located International Conference on Engineering Digital Twins (EDTconf 2026), held from 4 to 9 October in Málaga, Spain. It was a busy week for the lab, with a Best Short Paper award, two talks, and a tutorial. I also served on the MODELS 2026 Artifact Evaluation Track Program Committee, and I’m looking forward to MODELS 2027 in Budapest, where I’m Publicity Co-Chair.

The Oakes Lab in Málaga

Kérian Fiter’s paper Involving before Evolving: A Vision for Trustworthy Enterprise Digital Twin Engineering won the Best Short Paper award at EDTconf. Kérian wrote the paper with Adil Lagrou, Franck Dervault (Michelin), and me, and presented it in Málaga.

On Tuesday, I presented our vision paper BRIC-DT: Building Reliable Interfaces for Composable Digital Twins, led by Cláudio Gomes (Aarhus University). That afternoon, Kérian led our MODELS tutorial, “Promoting Observability in Digital Twin Reporting: A Hands-On Tutorial for DTInsight”, and did a fantastic job.

Gabrielle Gallant did exceptional work as a student volunteer, and was one of the most efficient people at the registration desk.

onto:Nexus 2026

I co-organized the onto:Nexus Workshop 2026 (International Workshop on Ontological Modeling and Analysis) with Maged Elaasar (Chair), Wahab Hamou-Lhadj, Mohammad Hamdaqa, and Eduard Kamburjan. The workshop was a success. In the afternoon, we had an active discussion on how to move ontological model-based systems engineering forward, and how to work on it together.

Friends and thanks

It was great to meet old and new friends during the week, including Mikkel Schmidt Andersen (Aarhus University), who was a research intern in the lab in 2025.

Our hotel was right on the beach, which was a nice way to end each day.

Finally, a big thank you to Lola Burgueño (University of Málaga), the General Chair of MODELS 2026, for navigating the logistical and other challenges of organizing the conference. Thank you also to the EDTconf Program Co-Chairs, Nelly Bencomo, Eduard Kamburjan, and Vinay Kulkarni, to Cláudio Gomes for leading the BRIC-DT paper, and to Franck Dervault and Michelin for our collaboration.

A pool, palm trees, and the sea, seen from a balcony of the conference hotel in Málaga. Bentley Oakes and Kérian Fiter under a tent of string lights at the MODELS 2026 banquet. The MODELS 2026 banner: the conference emblem of a castle above the sea with palm trees, next to the text 29th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, MODELS 2026, 4 to 9 October 2026, Malaga, Spain. The MODELS 2026 student volunteers in blue conference shirts, many with their arms raised, between two MODELS 2026 banners. Thatched sun shelters and wooden lounge chairs on the sand, with the sea behind them, at the beach in front of the conference hotel in Málaga.
The view from our hotel, with Kérian Fiter at the MODELS 2026 banquet, the MODELS 2026 student volunteers (Gabrielle Gallant is at the front right), and the beach nearby.